Articles
Response to letter from Gedling MP
Date Posted: 6:44 PM on Tue, 11 January 2022Letter from Leader and Deputy Leader of the Gedling Borough Council in response to today’s (11 Jan 2022) public letter from Gedling’s Member of Parliament regarding Omicron Business Support Grants & Additional Restrictions Grants.
If you’re a local business owner in Gedling Borough please keep an eye on our website (https://www.gedling.gov.uk/business-grants/) for more information in the coming days about eligibility and how to apply for these grants. Please be assured we are working as swiftly as possible to open applications for these grants.
Dear Mr Randall
Thank you for your letter dated 11 January 2022 regarding Omicron Business Support Grants and a further Additional Restrictions Grant.
Our local businesses are the lifeblood of our local community and have shown incredible resilience in the face of immense challenges throughout the Covid pandemic. Gedling Borough Council will continue to do all it can to support and assist them.
Your Government’s guidance on the aforementioned grants was only published on Friday 7 January 2022 - a whole 18 days after the initial announcement of these grants by the Government on Tuesday 21 December 2021. The formal offer letter of the amount Gedling Borough Council will receive from the Government for this tranche of Omicron Business Support Grants & Additional Restrictions Grant funding was only sent to the Council after lunchtime today (11 January - same date as your letter regarding the matter).
Gedling Borough Council staff have administered more than £30.5 million in business grants to support local businesses throughout the Covid pandemic. Our staff have worked incredibly hard to administer a wide range of schemes, each with differing guidance - many of our staff have given up their own time over recent weeks and months to ensure local businesses have been supported and assisted in a timely and effective way.
It is a real shame you deem it acceptable for your own Government to take 18 days between an announcement of these grants and actually issuing the official guidance for them but you’ve not extended the courtesy of the same time for our hardworking staff who are currently working tirelessly to ensure these business grant schemes go live as soon as possible. Our staff are still awaiting further guidance from the Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy following on from a webinar they attended on these grant schemes, which was only held yesterday by the Government department.
The announcement of the guidance for these grants by the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which was published on the Government’s website on Friday 7 January 2022 specifically states that businesses will be able to tap into this support package ‘in the coming weeks’. You might reflect on whether two working days since the guidance for these grants was published could be deemed ‘coming weeks’.
Given your interest and concern regarding this issue, we’d appreciate a very urgent answer as to why your Conservative Government has deemed it appropriate to provide Gedling Borough Council (in your own constituency of Gedling) with £150,711.04 in Additional Restrictions Grant, whilst nearby councils in Nottinghamshire received much more funding to support local businesses:
Newark & Sherwood District Council - £205,187.46
Rushcliffe Borough Council - £228,928.16
Bassetlaw District Council - £172,332.03
In terms of allocations from Government to councils for the Hospitality & Leisure Grant Scheme, it appears that Gedling Borough is yet again lagging behind in comparison to the amounts Government has provided to nearby councils in Nottinghamshire:
Gedling Borough Council - £594,027.00
Newark & Sherwood District Council - £1,458,099.00
Rushcliffe Borough Council - £804,051.00
Bassetlaw District Council - £1,134,090.00
Is this another example of your Government ‘levelling up’ every part of the United Kingdom? Or is this Gedling’s businesses and communities being short-changed yet again?
We look forward to you finally standing up for the people and businesses you serve by ensuring Gedling ceases being short-changed by your Government.
Yours sincerely
Leader of Gedling Borough Council and Deputy Leader
Councillor John Clarke and Councillor Michael Payne